Book Review: The Annihilation of Foreverland by Tony Bertauski

Memories modified to fit in with someone else's.  Living on an island with other kids who know not what is their past and what is someone else's.  What is reality and what is fake?

When kids awake on an island, they're told there was an accident.  They are told they will be able to go home, but before they can do that they must journey into Foreverland, an alternate reality that they are told will heal their minds.  Lost in this alternate reality is a girl, a girl Reed dreams of, a girl who visits Danny.  Reed doesn't remember her name or much about her, but he feels she is important to him.  Together, Danny and the girl discover what's really going on.

I think the idea for Foreverland, the place and the book, is interesting and that's what compelled me to want to read.  Bertauski created an exciting world for these "lost" boys.  Danny's role was entertaining.  He was new and he was able to infiltrate the system that Foreverland ran on.  Also interesting was the girl Danny met.  The boys and girls are separated.  Only boys on the island so when they enter Foreverland they don't exactly know where the girls come from.  This girl wanted Danny.  He was her means to get to someone else.  Where did she come from?  Why was she there?  Why was she after Danny?

I never felt connected to the characters.  There seemed to be a sort of distance between them and me, the reader.  Because of that, I didn't have that care for the characters that I felt might have been necessary to really enjoy the story.  Two of the characters, Zin and Reed, are supposed to be total opposites, one goes into Foreverland with too much zeal and the other never goes in, but it was hard keeping them separate.  They were too much alike than they should have been.

Intermingled in the story were news articles.  I won't spoil and tell why they are there, but they were distracting.  They took away from the story rather than help it.  I understand their purpose, but until the reader knows this they just get in the way.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.  I read it at the request of the author.  All thoughts and opinions are mine and I was not compensated for this review in any way.  I read it as an e-book on the Kindle app on my laptop.